This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 arising from an application entitled, METHOD OF REMOTELY CONTROLLING AN EXTERNAL APPLIANCE BY A MOBILE RADIO PHONE SYSTEM PROVIDING SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE, filed earlier in the Korean Industrial Property Office on Dec. 10, 1998, and there duly assigned Serial No. 1998-54134.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of remotely controlling an appliance which is installed at a remote place not reachable by a conventional controller, and more particularly, for employing a short message service (SMS) provided in a mobile terminal to control the appliance in such remote area, without the need for any additional remote control equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when an appliance is installed in a remote area not directly reachable by a conventional remote controller, a wired or wireless control equipment is employed and attached to the appliance. Such additional remote control equipment to control the appliance in a hard to reach area results in high cost in installing, managing, and maintaining the remote control equipment.
It is one object of the present invention to provide a method for remotely controlling an external appliance by employing a mobile terminal supporting a short message service (SMS) without the need for any additional remote control equipment.
According to the present invention, a method for remotely controlling an external appliance via a mobile terminal in a mobile radio system providing short message service (SMS) comprises the steps of: periodically converting the status data of the external appliance into a short message in a predetermined form; transmitting the converted short message to the mobile terminal; setting the mobile phone in a short message transmission mode to transmit the converted short message to a designated message center; converting the received short message by the message center into corresponding state data which is transmitted to a monitoring center; analyzing the state data of the short message to produce a control command which is transmitted back to the message center; converting the received control command, by the message center, into a corresponding short message which is transmitted to the mobile phone; transmitting the converted short message of the control command by the mobile terminal to the external appliance; and, controlling the external appliance in accordance with the received short message of the control command.